This section is from the book "Materia Medica And Therapeutics Inorganic Substances", by Charles D. F. Phillips. Also available from Amazon: Materia medica and therapeutics.
The silicate of soda (water-glass) is used like the analogous salt of potash. Bandages soaked in the fluid harden into a light firm support in twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
Comparing soda with potash, we find the former more indicated in disorders of the stomach, the primae viae, and the liver, while the latter, acting better as a diuretic and a solvent of uric acid, is more appropriate in renal congestions and lithiuria.
1 Soda salts are, by some practitioners. given internally for rheumatism, like potash (v. p. 279): the use of the salicylate will be discussed under salicylic acid.
 
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